Customer Reviews

First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 2001: Student to Student Guide

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

As a brief review of the USMLE I syllabus, this book is an excellent choice. However, be warned, the USMLE questions have gone more sophisticated.
USMLE hardly asks you this type of question now:

A 25 year old woman taking prednisone for SLE develops fever, muscle aches, jaundice, right-sided abdominal pains. What is the diagnosis?
a. cholelithiasis
b. cholestasis
c. hepatitis
d. right lower lobe pneumonia
e. adverse reaction to medication

Everyone knows this is hepatitis.

No. It will ask:
A 25 year old woman taking prednisone for SLE develops fever, muscle aches, jaundice, right-sided abdominal pains. The most likely cause of these findings is
a. antibodies to hepatocytes
b. release of cytokines from T lymphocytes
c. lysis of infected hepatocytes
d. blockage of bile canaliculi
e. activation of complement against hepatocytes

Now, not everyone knows the answer (c by the way).
This book (First Aid) does not go into this level of granularity in covering the test materials. This does not mean that it does not have its use, however.
Suggestions for use:
1. Read this book first. Because of its concise coverage of most of the topics on the USMLE I, it is most suited for this purpose.
2. Get more detailed texts, and read each topic as set out in the syllabus (it is amazing how many medical students and doctors fail to use the syllabus in preparing for the exams!). The NMS series (Biochem, Physiology, Microbiology, Pharmacology are especially good). Use some other published materials for Anatomy, Pathology and Behavioral science. NMS series are not so good in those areas.
3. Practice with the released MCQs (150 of them). You will get some of these on the exam, trust me.
4. Practice with Kaplan's QBank, until you consistently score a perfect 100%. If you don't have the money for this, or if you have more time, use NMS review for the USMLE Step I by Lazo, et al. It is a great alternative/complement
5. Reread this book (first Aid) to round up your preparations.

6. Go smash the USMLE step I. You will most likely score in the 95th per centile.

Good luck.

This is the Bible for USMLE step 1 study, a complete starter's kit. It's broken up into three basic sections, all very useful, with information that cannot be found anywhere else.

The first section is a description of what the test is like, what to expect about things like scoring and in case you think you failed, and also strategies for studying. (A note of disagreement: their recommendation for studying requires a much longer time commitment than most medical students can or are willing to give, e.g., two entire months devoted solely to USMLE preparation.)

The second section is a list of high yield facts in each subject area. Some students say that the exam can be passed comfortably just having memorized this section. Of course, it would be unwise to test that hypothesis, but my personal experience vindicates it: just about all of the answers to the questions I missed on the USMLE practice test CD-ROM could be found in this section of the exam. My only complaint about this section is that the links to the Underground Clinical Vignettes series (UCV) were spotty (sometimes there are no links listed for diseases that are discussed in UCV) and sometimes wrong (they refer to the wrong case), and that these links, being of lower yield value than everything else in this book, smacked of a marketing ploy to encourage purchasing the UCV series, which happens to be authored by the same person.

The final section is a listing and review of all the major review books currently available. The review is based on student response and is generally quite accurate and very useful (including even ISBN numbers, a godsend for those who shop online), not showing any signs of proprietary bias.

All other review books, if possible, should be borrowed or purchased used, but this book is updated every year and its purchase is a required investment for everyone taking the step 1 exam, so that it can be underlined, scribbled on, and read over and over again.

The books of the First Aid for the USMLE Step 1 series help from the very day you decide to take the USMLE (or medicine, for that matter). It contains need-to-know information about the exam such as what the exam is like, when to register, what your score means, and what to do if you pass or fail. Furthermore, and most importantly, it contains the absolutely "must know" high-yield facts in every subject in Step 1's coverage and fun mnemonics to go along with them. This book also has a review of review books which helps you decide which books are best for you. It also includes a form you can submit mnemonics and suggestions with to improve next year's edition. However, obviously this book is not enough to pass step 1 of the USMLE, but it may give you a very good advantage.

This book is a must-have for second year medical students and anyone taking Step 1 of the USMLE. It's great preparation for your second year classes, and the most concise and comprehensive text of what you'll need to know for Step 1. If you understand the material in this book, you will do quite well on Step 1. The information could be a bit better organized, but otherwise this book is unreservedly recommended.

After taking step 1 on april 30, 2001. I went through my books and found that First Aid was completely useless !

It only helped me with 1 question on my April 30 step 1 exam.

The USMLE Step 1 exam is mostly Internal Medicine not Pharmo, Micro, biochem. I had no more than 5 pharm, 5 micro and 2 biochem questions on my entire exam, imagine how I felt after wasting money and time on this piece of junk.

Most of my questions were vignettes that dealt with Hematology, Acid-Base questions, wierd Biostats, CT scans , Gross pics and many calculations such as Power, Risk Factor, Renal Flow and all the other subjects people told me not to study !

Word of Advice for step 1 :

Avoid Board Simulator Series ( more useless junk,the questions did not have the correct content )If you insist on using junk, go get some beat up PreTests and read them as the questions are the same as the BSS but cheaper.

Have the courage to stray from the well worn path of failure and try things that are non-standard. Heres what made me pass :

Patho review by Kumar and Klatt (1200q's ) Superb, exactly board like !

Cecils Review of Internal Med ( I recognized over 100 q's that were very similar to my exam )

Harrisons INternal med Review questions. do the easy questions.

Dont fool yourself into thinking that a simple book like First Aid is valuable, the test writers know what is out there and they arent going to let you pass by just reading a simple book like this.

The reason anybody buys this junk is this : US med students learn enough Internal Med in their courses to pass step 1. So they run out and buy this book to settle their nerves, take the exam and do well. They think that the First Aid book did it for them when in reality, it was their classroom knowledge that got them through. They tell their friends how wonderful the "book" is when in reality, they could have smoked the exam without it.

This is how the Myth of First AId is perpetuated !!!!!!!!

If you do use it, get a used copy and spend the last week just browsing through it.

I know countless numbers of med students that failed step 1 because they depended on easy junk like this. Don't kid yourself, Step 1 is very hard and you must study hard to review for it.

This book is the first book you should get on preparing the USMLE Step1. It contains not only the review of the subjects, but also informations that you should know on taking the exam. I strongly suggest this book especially if you are an International Medical Graduate.

As a student i have always believed in working hard and tried to master the concepts and material covered in the medical school curiculum.It did bring very good grades but I am afraid thats not enough for USMLE. As this book tells USMLE has focus that can be different from what is covered in medschool. A good school will have covered the material but this book will help you look at it the way you can score more on USMLE( esp. the clinical slant of the exam) .The advice are judicious and invaluable for an IMG. I read the advice early on and it helped me mentally prepare for the exam. It maybe hard to go through the review books adviced when doing your course work but borrowing them and orienting yourself to them maybe useful.The book reviews are good. This book doesnt do any magic for you. The best prepration is still studying hard during the course.Goodluck on the exam.
Updated 27th Oct2001 : Just wished to add 1 month after writting the above review that I got a 3 digit score of 269 and a 2 digit score of 99.

This book is crammed with highly condensed notes on "high yield material", covering antatomy, physiology, biochemistry etc. It's been specially designed for the Step 1 exam but it's useful for any kind of preclinical exam (i.e. I'm using it for the British BM part 1 exam).

You will find this book most useful when you already know a fair bit about each subject area; then you can look through it to revise what you know and spot anything you've missed. If you can cover everything in this book you'll only know the basics, but at least you'll know ALL OF the basics ! That should be enough to get you through Step 1 with a good score.

Another great thing about First Aid is its fully comprehensive guide to review resources, both books and on the web. It's also got useful tips for planning your revision.

All in all, a great study aid with a real medstudent-friendly feel. Recommended !

It should not be your only book, or your main basis, but as far as I'm concerned, more than 70 % of the Step 1 came in this wonderful book!!!

I worked hard through out my first two years of Medical school. We even started studying early for the boards. However when crunch time came and there was a limited amount of time for review I used First Aid. I got the score I wanted and felt like I was prepared for 99% of the questions I had on the boards. If you can use this book during your course work-DO IT! What I did was made flash cards from this book and quized myself. I also used this along with the Clinical Vignettes which were awesome as well.